Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 24, 1994 TAG: 9404260029
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Democrat Linda Wyatt commands respect for her more than two decades as an elementary-school teacher of children, many of whom have disadvantaged backgrounds. That's useful experience in a city where half the schoolchildren now grow up in impoverished families.
But because she would remain a teacher while on council, her occupation also poses a drawback to her candidacy, even though Virginia law allows it. Council appoints school-board members, and its power of the purse gives it a strong influence on school policy.
This concern is not eased by Wyatt's seeming embrace of an old-timey liberal conception of government as regulatory mandator and provider of safe jobs, and her apparent commitment to the special-interest agenda of the National Education Association.
John Voit, an affable GOP activist and former stockbroker who now invests a little here and lectures a little there, is Wyatt's ideological opposite. He calls for privatization of at least some city services and "market alternatives," such as tax breaks, to further compliance with city plans and policies.
Some of these ideas are worth exploring on a case-by-case basis. But, given his limited experience, Voit's abstract discussion comes across mostly as conservative debate-club aversion to government. It's as narrow and constricting an ideology as Wyatt's apparent trust in government-mandated solutions.
Voters should know they have the option of writing in a Nelson Harris or a Barbara Duerk on the Wyatt-Voit ballot.
Keywords:
POLITICS ENDORSEMENT
by CNB